FORMER AMERICA FIRST LEADER NOW PROMOTER WITH BIG BUSINESS, MILITARY TIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000200200015-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 11, 2000
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: May 21, 1961
• Content Type: NSPR

MAY 9 1 1961
T.HE WORKER
Leader Now
mr
MOW& 0 t AmeriForifier
4
-, -
CPYRGHT
Priomo ter With ip ig
Business, MiI/tay1J!s.
('HI('AGO - "In the + ruci'a hour, they eman riml
t king and sheer will from leadership, when lesser risen
,erawed by the odd-) have lost their nerve,"
A
The vUis
V a 1t:, : - - -
nett
a
r
atio~l _ CDn The institute is the y ,. ? a+!?.
ApTHE eWORKER. eleas O ~ - DP75-P?Ri
1W -0
lcluis meeting of Several h..indred called the "Institute for -\mer
America's most lnfiuential .in- ' can Stragety". In March. 195
strialists and ,most prominent the Institute held i first publi
ilitary 'leaders.
Represented in this assernblagR'
c l . cold warriors held last year
i i Chicago, in "addition to the,
- cl! known personages from the.
.med forces and the ''busines3
,>rTd, was the, FBI. G.hiet tn
lector William C. Sullivan from
Edtar Hoover's office was an
',itstanding speaker.
This year when the same
gaup met, also. in Chicago, the
i -mp>sition of the group chang-
,- little, with one exception.
aitelhg nc. addressed
he er
F
rank R. Barnett has been
-adited with being the inaster-
nd behind the Military-hi-
astry sessions, He is the direc-
n of research "of the multi-mil-
!an dollar Richardson Founda-
snn. in tyre officially release).
iiography of Barnett the con-
erence stated:
"He is a gold war stratigis2' and
iroponent of a plan to recruit
ron curtain exiles into " a ' legion
f Freedom. He is a" director of
r,A. A merican Friends of Russian
"Risk taking", as Barnett so of the cold war Institute' ?' r'.
'ajnily eN.piained to his, audience, American Strategy are:
is a "common feature" in "bust- ? Frank R. Barnett -iz e
ess, politics and war." Richardson Foundation
What is this Military-Industrial 11i ,.ry A. Bulbs, for i ; f
nstitute. which has 'attracted to General Mill,, inr
its myiiad of conferences) nut- John M. Fisher, ChA Sect T
-
Standing personalities from high
!v di-c rsified, Melds'' Whence
Chairmar, if ;.lie Board of the
American r,ourity Council.
Daniel A. Sullivan of Armour
Research 1' oundation.
Gene :-al Robert 9: Wood, ye-
rie,l cliniiman of the. Board of
i Roebuck.
GIN. -WOOD'S ROLE
Mainspring fQr the formation
of both ;organizations ,as Gen.
Wood, -ho in his earlier years
was the head of the isolationist
America First Comrhtttee, which
had the avowed support of anti-
Semites, Nazi Bundists and self-
proclaimed Ameri.Fan Fascists.
After the America First fiasco,
,luring which time Wood, a for
riser army quartermaster, be
came head of ''the Sears, Roe-
hoick chain, little was heard.
from him for about a decade.
But he did not rest on his re-
actionary laurels.
Wood perso.ria.lly solicited.
inenibership to the ? ifledgling
\merican. S cuii1?: Council. To
run the affairs of this organiza-
i ion he recruited much- of Sears
Roebuck's personnel. is' chief
i>i security, former F$I agent-
John Fisher, bedtime ther.boss of
tiie outfit. This has begin ,docu-
nmented in past articles in The
NEW IMh q
Simultaneously "the IlioitjtUte
for American Strategy was born.
But this time Wood would not
make the same mistake he made
in the 1940s with the American
First Committee,"it seeiiiPP?. In-
stead of support from' Gerald
L. K. Smith, Father Coughlin
and others of this ilk; he sought
a new set of associates.
Military "leaders, business ty-
coons and government officials
were his- new buddies. Greetings
v.-ere sent to the conferences by
President Eisenhower. Generals
3;ch as Max'.ell Taylor vied to
springs this organization tb.ai leak there. Foreign guests ad-
1-,as held 1 rOvedFOrRtIgase 2000/05/05: CIA-RDP75 OGOIRO0O O2OO045-8
taffy personnel at the National It was the same old V',ood.
War College in wasting on in >i,t in :i "new image."
n
sessions in Chicago.
In a three-day ineeting co
sponsored by the Society
American Military Engineer
We Illinois Institute of Tee
riology, the Chicago Associatio
of Commerce and Industry an
varied branches of the arme
forces, the first Military Industr
conference was born.
it has now become an annu
v~-ent, sponsored and organize
uy the Institute For America
St:ratcgy.
But the timing of the bir
of the institute, the personnel
the board and the identity of su
porters have more that pass
interest. The_ LAS now- seeks
pass ;itself off as a ,paU'iotic o
ganization, and is not tob anxio
to have some of its more surd
connections brought to light.
The Military-Industrial CO -
fercnces and t4e American S -
curity Council, reputed to
the nation's biggest anti-lab r
blacklist agency, were born wit
in months of each othe'.
The top executive bodies f
dsoth organizations reaO like
the top officers of the' 'ilackljt
 S akers fr rr{{~~ Sr s` oebrftY
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~"~Ye~c " ~~'t
Society, held forth on the plat-
forms. But despite all precau-
tions and the loud protestations
of Daniel Sulli van that "none of
the "lunatic fringe" Were ii' this
"respectable organization", the
facts shnw' otherwise. - .,
Frank ,Flick, Chicago industri-
alist, who shared the pla'forrn
with self -pproclaimed leaders of
the John $jrch Society Chi-
cago, was a speaker at Mili-
tary-Indiustria'l Institute "' i=
year.
Dr. Gerhart Niemyer, A e of
the editors of the nedscis~
National Heview was 'Or
ie
speaker this year.
'Professor Anthony T. Busearen.
of Le Moyne College, a member
of the Educational Advisory
Committee of the Conference;
has been in the past few year:.
a featured speaker at the' Con-
gress of American Freedom,
clearly a group belonging to
the fascist" "lunatic fringe."
But these .are just some of the
lesser lights in the military in-
stitute picture. Big corporation
heads, from General Mills, Allis
Chalmers and others who gave
of their money and time for the.
America First C'aknmittee are
reunited with their old boss.
Gen. Wood, in the Militarv-i;,?
dustrial Conferences.
oP'v:.c ui. finis year s
dustrial Conference.
WAY 2 1 1961
Approved For Release 2000/05/05 : CIA-RDP75-00001 R000200200015-8